My Girl (2005)

I recently re-watched this drama for... I'm not even sure what it is  now, the fourth time? Fifth? In any case, it is definitely the drama I  have re-watched most (and I generally don't re-watch dramas). It's funny, because each time, I think I've been able to notice little flaws more than the previous time. This time, I enjoyed poking fun at it quite often in my head. It's not perfect by any means - especially in terms of film quality. Some of it also feels overacted, particularly in the beginning.

But I don't care - ultimately, I still adore this show, because the  characters and relationships are so endearing. Joo Rin is really a great protagonist. She habitually lies in the beginning (albeit usually for  understandable reasons), and she is also sometimes temperamental and petty. But she's also loving, kind, funny, charming, and resilient. In other words, she is likable, but flawed and genuine. Gong Chan, likewise, achieves a perfect balance of traits. He is sometimes arrogant, but also modest and hardworking. He seems tough and rigid, but he actually leans more towards being softhearted and kind. Lee Dong Wook instills a very warm quality in his character. I question whether another actress and actor could have brought these two characters alive in such a beautiful way. (Side note: I did actually see the Philippine remake of this story first. I enjoyed it, but this version is better in my opinion.)

The talented Lee Joon Gi is also very good in this; I love his character's expressiveness and cheekiness. I also love the Seol family, even if I think the romance between In Sun and Il Do could have been ~a bit~ less  dramatic at times. Although Gong Chan's grandfather is unfair to his loved ones in a way (especially his deceased daughter and Gong Chan, whom he loves most), his actor does so well at playing up his sweet and charming side. The weakest link for me, hands down, was Se Hyun. I understand she's supposed to be an antagonist, but after a certain  point, she seems to outstay her role in the show.

I really love the music. It is memorable and does a great job at enhancing the emotional quality of scenes. Overall, I really enjoyed the narrative. The ending is satisfying without being too unrealistic; the two main characters do suffer the consequences for their charade. I might favor My Girl a little because it was one of the first Asian dramas I watched, but I still think it's a fun show and I'll probably watch it again in a  year or so. If you haven't seen it, give it a go. :)

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I did like this drama and the story, but there were some things that just let it down for me.
I always seem to like the Hong sisters dramas, I think mostly because they make really good characters.

This story was funny and Joo Yoo Rin was a great character that brought the most out of the story. Everyone else however was a bit lacking character wise. I also found the story would progress so slowly, I ended up skipping parts. There was also not too much romance, it sort of felt like it just suddenly happened.

My biggest gripe about this drama is the music. Holy mother of God, it was horrendous, it really made it unwatchable as one horrible song was constantly replayed over and over and over and over again. To make it worse it wasn't even real music, just an annoying lady warbling over and over and over again.

To be fair I think the music really impacted on my viewing experience for this drama and I can't objectively rate it without considering the horrible music. It was a good story, good characters, but slow and ear achingly annoying.

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This drama was my first K-drama so chances are high that the reason why i love it so much is because of that reason. However, i'll still try to be as unbiased as possible.



I found the story to be quite enchanting, so much so that I finished the show in 2 days.



I loved the Cast and the Acting in this drama. I fell in love with Lee Da Hae and Lee Dong Wook in this drama. I also loved Lee Jun Ki in it. So I'm giving the Acting a definite 10.



The music was amazing but it wasn't THE best. I'm giving the music a 9.



As for rewatch value, an absolute 10. I've been able to rewatch this drama several times...and im a person who rarely rewatches things!



Overall, i'm giving this drama a 10, since i find it an absolute must watch.

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This drama is a classic for a reason, the exact kind of rom-com, melo, crack drama most drama lovers search for. It's got the quirky, persistent, lovable female lead who Stays quirky and persistent and lovable the entirety of the story. It has a male lead who Starts the drama as an actually humane, likable person with a decent moral compass (although more on that later). The premise, while completely implausible, is still a lot of fun full of hijinks and mishaps and fun bonding moments. And like many rom-com/melo's from it’s time (and many modern rom-com/melo's as well, to be honest), it utilizes the ‘drag the main conflict out far longer than necessary’ trope for the sake of creating conflict, but of all the classic dramas that rely on this trope, this is definitely one of the better ones.

Unfortunately, that last point is exactly the reason why I ultimately had to drop this drama, despite all of the other wonderful things about it.

The lie starts out fun, harmless, then reality sets in and our leads begin to understand the age-old saying 'Oh what a tangled web.' And that's fine. The lie Should become a weight around their necks that they have to struggle with until they eventually throw it off in exchange for the truth. It just. Takes. Too. Long. for them to cut the rope keeping the weight tied to their necks. There's No reason, past about episode 11/12 (and that's honestly too long for my tastes, but I'm trying to be reasonable here), for the lie to continue. And before anyone starts shouting 'But then there's no conflict driving the rest of the drama!' I'm not saying they should have ended up together by ep 13, leaving three episodes as unnecessary filler. There was plenty of conflict to mine from the reveal of the lie that would have pushed the drama forward for another few episodes before our leads could get their happy ending. Grandpa could oppose the relationship because it started with a lie, a lie that ultimately hurt the rest of the family in one of the deepest ways possible (which, from reading spoilers about the last three episodes, is sort of what happens in the story anyway, just in an unbearably rushed way). They could have been separated for a time in punishment for their actions and maybe spent some of that time both atoning and pleading on their love's behalf. Hell, they could have just have a big, knockout, drag out fight about it and 'broke up' for a couple of episodes. There was just no reason for the lie to live so long.

But what's worse than the lie lasting longer than it deserved to is what it ultimately does to our leads. It ruins a lot of what was so good about the male lead at the start of the drama. Gong Chan is extremely honorable and responsible and decent in the first half (minus the lie about his cousin). He's obviously not the sort to lie before the drama starts, and he creates the lie out of a desperate, misguided desire to do good. And as I said about the importance of the lie becoming a weight around their necks, I also think it's important that we see the lie change him and turn him into the sort of person who would betray his family, the woman he loves, his own self for self-serving reasons. But the drama never actually explores this. It just makes the lie go on forever like the song that never ends, and by the end, you just don’t like Gong Chan that much any more.

It's sort of the opposite of what most old-school dramas do with there male leads where they take a horrible person and make them a kinder human. This time, they took human who was already kind and made him terrible.

Alternatively, the lie doesn't turn Yoo Rin into some sort of terrible person but rather into a more sympathetic, conflicted, incredibly sad character. It doesn't take away her spunk, but it severely dampens her personality. And again, this is exactly how I think it Should have played out. While either of them could have ended the lie if they really wanted to, and ultimately, they are both to blame for not doing so, I can understand Yoo Rin's difficulty with it more than Gong Chan's. She has more to lose by ending the lie. Gong Chan could lose the woman he loves, but he'll still have his family at the end of everything. They might be angry with him for a very long time, but underneath that anger will be love. Yoo Rin doesn't have that luxury. When the lie ends, she is left with nothing. Not the man she loves, not the family she's come to love, she's back where she started, homeless and now with no idea where her father has ended up. What's interesting about that is that out of the two of them, she's also clearly the one desperately Wanting to end the lie the most but continuing to agree to keep the ruse going because she cares so much for Gong Chan and for his family.

And this is where the drama lost me in terms of her character.

More than anything else in this drama, I wanted the story to spend time exploring Yoo Rin becoming close to the family emotionally and how it must have made her feel lying to them the closer she got to them, but the drama never does that. It sidesteps this entirely. We see her feel bad about the act of lying itself, feeling guilty over what they are doing to each other and to Gong Chan's family, and we see her spend lots of time with the family, all of them genuinely coming to like each other and enjoying being in each other's company. But there’s very little discussion over how much of a toll lying to these people that she's come to care deeply about must be having on her. She has to be lying awake at night thinking about how terrible grandpa is going to feel when the lie is revealed, how much the entire family is going to hate her for what she's done, how when it's all over...they won't love her anymore. This is where her habit of eating when she feels guilty could have played so much more of a prominent role than it did. What better way to show the guilt and shame she must feel over lying to so many people.

And I'm about to say something I can't believe I'm about to say, but I think this is the first time I’ve wanted the evil second female lead to Succeed in her pursuit of being evil. Not because I didn’t want the leads together or because I had any love for the second female lead (Dear God In Heaven No). I wanted her plans for revealing the lie to succeed...because I wanted the lie to end so the leads could finally, bloody get together. I wanted them to face the repercussions of their decisions, and I wanted them to get together and be happy, because I really liked them as a couple.

But neither of them could ever muster up the moral courage to end the lie, and the writers kept thwarting the second female lead at every turn, thus denying me the relief I was so desperately seeking.

And now I'll end my complaints by turning everyone in the drama community against me by saying that the secondary male lead is exactly the sort of pesky second male lead that I sort-of, kind-of, maybe hate in most dramas where they appear. I know a lot of people really enjoy their second lead feels, and that most secondary male leads in older dramas are just significantly better people than the male leads are, and that's cool and all, but I typically don't experience second lead feels. When a drama writer tells me who's supposed to end up together at the end, I believe them. I put all thoughts and ideas and secondary options in a drawer somewhere, and I invest in the main couple, because I want the writers to make their couple work. When I Can't invest in the main couple, I generally just don't invest in the drama at all, and I go watch something else.

On the rare occasion that I Do experience second lead feels...I ignore them, because I can't handle that kind of pain in my life.

So yeah. The second lead quickly went from roguish fun to obnoxious irritation for me. It's 100% hypocritical of me to feel this way about persistent secondary male leads when I often adore persistent female leads, but when there's an established couple in a drama and a secondary male lead refuses to accept it (and this goes for secondary lead feels too), I want to hit him over the head with a frying pan.

Part of me, even still, wants to finish the last three episodes of this drama, but I know I'll still be dissatisfied when they're over. So I have to accept it. It's just not worth it for me.

Lire davantage

I watched this drama bcoz it was one of top recommended must to watch in utube..... story is just fine though i think sometimes it was a cheesy plotting....... I think 16 episodes is too long for this type of story, they just prolonged it to make a drama.It was just an ordinary story, only the fact that the actors and actresses are all pretty which made me give a try too. The ending wasnt bad nor good. what weakens this drama is that all the thrilling plot were gathered in the last episode that made the story cheesy. they should have divided each resolves of a problem to an equal episode and gave the final at a last episode to make it remarkable. they made a not a satisfying ending. Seems that other episodes was just nothing. Its like watch the first and last episode will make the story.......

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Well.. Its really a cute romantic one. When the situation comes where Gong chan and yoo rin neither can come out of their lies nor accept each other as brother/sister, I was like 'omg what happens next..' I liked the screen play as it was not boring at all and lead actors were amazing. I am kind of person who likes when boy and girl fall for each other but cannot tell the other person due to some reason.crazy isn't it? but it will be cute if you know that things are going to turn out well at the end anyways.

Gong chan's best friend,who falls for yoo rin, does lots of cute little things to her.

'Never say goodbye' OST fits well with the drama.

I have watched so many dramas after this, but its stands the best still.(hmm.. may be after Full house)

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Most of the time I found this show charming and fun to watch. There were some moments I was a little overwhelmed by Yoo Rin and Lee Da Hae's overacting. But 90% of the time, I loved this. Lee Dong Wook is very sweet. Mostly great acting all around and the story was fun. Suspend disbelief fun...But isn't that why we watch? Really Lee Da Hae was mostly funny, cute and I enjoyed the secondary characters, especially Yoo Rin's friends. I liked Lee Dong Wook so much I went online and had to find another project to watch him act some more. This is a good one to watch after a tearjerker!

Lire davantage

My Girl probably was more innovative during its time. Watching it nine years after it aired, I can see how humor has changed over time (though a few things here and there made me smile). What I might have considered funny back then seems over the top now and even unbearable to watch at times (especially the relationship between the aunt and the yard man). I'm assuming that because this is an older drama and one that has such great reviews, that this was one of the first dramas with this type of plot - and they did pull it off well. However, I think that because I watched this after watching so many Kdramas, nothing seemed new. Not only have I seen similar parts of this drama in other dramas, but the drama itself became repetitive; the same conflicts and solutions would be used over and over, dragging the story out over what seemed to be a good portion of the show. Like the other two Hong Sister dramas I've watched, the show pulls the audience back with a pretty good ending.

Lee Joon Ki and Lee Dae Hee were the ones who stood out to me in this drama. I feel like Joon Ki had more charm than the male lead, and I can somewhat see from his side role why he's so popular even though I think his popularity stemmed from The King and the Clown which I plan to see now. Lee Dae Hee has a very endearing personality that makes your want to see more despite the predictability of the show and outdated humor. I know that Lee Dong Wook became a Hallyu star after this, but I didn't seem to grasp the charm he had in this drama. I feel like many times, especially during the "what if" scenes where he looked like a creep/pervert and the times where he struggled/cried and looked like a helpless adolescent, were a turn off for me.

The music wasn't my taste and one song eerily reminded me of Phantom of the Opera. I don't think I'll be watching this show again.

I would recommend this show perhaps if you're a new or first time Kdrama watcher. However, if you have a few Korean romcoms that you've seen I don't really think this will be entertaining for you since there's nothing new to keep it suspenseful.

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All right, my two cents on this drama.

Writing: 9/10. The Hong sisters are brilliant at rom-coms. All their works ROCK, no exceptions. That being said, though funny, adorable, and addictive, My Girl became very angsty towards the end. Which is fine but... we could just have kept with the funny and not go all melo.

Cast: Full points. OMG Lee Da Hae so awesome!!!!! She needs to do more rom-coms! Lee Dong Wook is totally hot and has LOTSA chemistry with Lee Da Hae, but he's not as good. And I know some people rly love Junki, but honesty, he was just a side wheel. He wasn't even "second lead", Dong Wook and Dae Hee just were awesome together, no better alt pairing.

Music: Same songs, but really good songs. Check them out: "Never Say Goodbye" by Mario and Nesty.

Rewatch: It was a really long watch, so a rewatch seems iffy... but if I had time, I would.

Overall: BEST DRAMA EVER. Okay, meybe tied for best place.

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